Probably:
Driver License
Lee Wild said:
DL?
Well, look, if the Lease you signed had some good terms in it, like the royalty, if they offered you a good royalty percentage and offered you a good bonus amount (even though they never paid it), if apart from the non-payment you thought the Lease was great, then why not give them a last shot to follow through, especially if your minerals are located in area with minimal leasing or drilling activity?
Tell them if they do not pay you by company check by a certain date you are going to file the enclosed Affidavit, and then if they don't pay you, you follow through and file the Affidavit. I know, they haven't returned your phone calls so they likely won't think much of your last-ditch effort, but remember that the GOAL is get your minerals leased and to get a well drilled. So unless you know of another outfit that is willing to lease your minerals and might be in a better position to actually drill the well, or unless there is so much activity in the area that the Operators need you more than you need them, give it a shot.
Pete Wrench said:
Well, look, if the Lease you signed had some good terms in it, like the royalty, if they offered you a good royalty percentage and offered you a good bonus amount (even though they never paid it), if apart from the non-payment you thought the Lease was great, then why not give them a last shot to follow through, especially if your minerals are located in area with minimal leasing or drilling activity?
I don't know if they'll even talk to me, but the plan was for me to go to their office before going to the county clerk. My husband is the one who has been trying to contact the company directly. I think he tried to contact the landman too. They either don't answer the phone or if a secretary does answer, they don't return calls. It has been leased before to a different company and we do have a letter from another company who wants to lease. We thought of sending them a certified letter, but doubt they would respond to that any better than to phone calls.
Tell them if they do not pay you by company check by a certain date you are going to file the enclosed Affidavit, and then if they don't pay you, you follow through and file the Affidavit.
Wouldn't that just give them time to file the lease and make things harder for us?
Jordyn J. Christian-Gingras, J.D said:
Also, if the Lessee mails their lease in and files it they wouldn't necessarily see what you've filed. Only if they looked back for it in the records. They can just mail the lease in with a cover letter and the proper fee to the clerk requesting they file it. Again, if they do file it, even after your affidavit, I'd strongly consider filing suit. A good landman would know that the lease wasn't valid after having seen your affidavit on record, but it is likely to avert potential lessees who aren't exercising proper due diligence and at this point your minerals are available for lease.
Also, not sure if you're mailing this or taking it in personally, but if mailing you'll need to ask the clerk the fee for filing it in the county and send the proper amount. It's usually X for the 1st page and Y for each additional page thereafter. Generally something like $15 and $1.
We didn't know it could be filed by mail. But I did want to check for leases on surrounding properties.
Thank you. I'll tell dh and see what he wants to do.
I did file the affidavits today, and also looked at the other O&G leases filed. There were several from this company and I got the addresses for the people. I thought dh might want to call and see if they got paid. it could be that we all go in together.
I also stopped by their office before filing the affidavits and the receptionist told me the guy who signed the bank drafts doesn't come into the office. Not sure what that means. A landman? Do landmen have the authority to sign bank drafts for the leasing company?
She did ask what I needed, and I told her he sent dh a lease and a bank draft that was returned. I gave her dh's phone number and told her I was on my way to the court house if he wanted to talk to either of us, and she smiled and said ok. That's it.
A little update. I filed the affidavits Monday. Tuesday, the guy called dh and told him the money would be in our bank in the next day or two. Dh didn't tell him we filed affidavits and I hadn't told the receptionist anything except that I was going to the court house.
Nothing was ever deposited to our bank account, so it was another lie. Dh's brother said that he had charges back to his bank from the returned draft, for over $30. We didn't have that at our bank. Dh's sister said the guy told her the money would be deposited after her draft was returned unpaid, and it never did either.
So the affidavits stirred up something, just nothing that amounted to anything. I was hoping I would come back here to say we had our money and how do I remove the affidavits. But not so.
(Edited to correct spelling)
Removal of documents would not be a problem in any case because anything in the public record can be amended by a subsequent filing. In Lee's case, the subsequent filing would probably be a ratification if he had actually been paid late and was willing to go forward. If not, lee could return the late payment. Either way, the recording of the Affidavit of Non-Payment would not be a problem....for Lee.
They may not have scouts looking for such things, but I promise you everyone here is not named by the name they say they are. Landmen from every company peruse this forum for good deals among other things. They absolutely know everything going on here. Maybe one day you will run across a message I left about CHK. The landman I was dealing with (he was with CHK) knew what I said within minutes. Careful, for the trees have ears.
Yours,
Wes Luke
Any document filed in the public record CAN be removed, with a court order, but they are extremely rare, in fact from my personal experience I can recall it being done only once, and do not recall the reason. But I am very confident that a court would not issue such an order in this scenario. You wouldn't have to remove the Affidavit or ratify the Lease anyway. If the Affidavit states that the Lease dated "such and such" was null and void, just sign a new Lease with the current date and you're good to go! If the Affidavit doesn't refer to the Lease by date, among other things, then you didn't do the Affidavit right.
Then if the first Lease is ever filed, it would be nullified by the still valid Affidavit. I have seen this exact scenario once before, where the mineral owner filed an Affidavit not realizing that we had up to 30 business days to honor the bank draft. So we destroyed the first Lease and signed a second Lease with a different date.
P.S. I use my real name.
It might have had something to do with all that Republic of Texas stuff about ten years ago, where they were filing a bunch of bogus documents and clouding up alot of title. I just don't recall.